


Hailing the Delorean

by laCommunarde



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, Multi, Rip gets yelled at a lot, Time Travel, lisa doesn't follow her brother's third rule and it works for her plans, mourning fic where they realize they don't actually have to mourn, sort of mourning fic, spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 1.16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:50:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7099807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laCommunarde/pseuds/laCommunarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lisa Snart and Sara Lance determine they are not going to mourn their siblings but are going to fix the time line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sara Lance needed to get away from the life that had been hers and now wasn’t. She pulled her bag – never unpacked, she realized now – and grabbed the address off the door-side table. Mick would at least be something familiar and would understand this aching feel of loss.

Unfortunately, that was before Sara had realized what part of town Sinners & Saints was in. She swore loudly, not because she minded, but because it was all but impossible to find the place without tredding on someone’s turf or other. She may have been about to break the last guy’s neck before he gave her accurate – albeit colorfully decorated – instructions, so she had found the general neighborhood. But that was where the instructions left her and there wasn’t really anyone around to ask.

She heard a whir of some charging up then and there was a sudden blue shot of light that felt colder than normal for a summer night. It was followed by a loud, “Fuck!” 

She froze. She had seen that icy blue before. Chances were almost certain it had belonged to Leonard Snart. And the person who had sworn did not sound like Mick.

She snuck along the building and peered around the corner to see a woman in devastatingly high heels and a motorcycle jacket holding Leonard’s gun. Well, screw that.

No sooner had she thought it and moved than she had that cold gun aimed at her. “Gimme one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now with this gun and you may walk away from here,” the woman holding the gun said. 

“Where’d you get that gun?” Sara asked.

The woman’s eyes glinted. “None of your business, that’s where.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “I happen to know who belongs to that, and he’d be very upset to lose it.”

The woman shrugged like she didn’t care. “Yeah, you and half this city know whose gun it is. Thing is, he’s not around anymore. So it’s mine.” She seemed to be watching for something.

Sara was left in the interesting predicament of not knowing if she meant she knew Leonard was dead or if something had happened to Mick. She decided to see if any information would be forthcoming if she asked for information on the person who was no longer around. “You know what happened to him?”

The woman sighed and shook her head. “There are things nosy busybodies like you don’t actually wanna know the answer to, and the wound’s still too raw for me to tell a total stranger, so I’m gonna count to five, and by the time I’m done if I see your face anywhere around here again tonight, you’re gonna find out first-hand what it feels like to have fourth degree frostbite.” She leaned forward and whispered, “Not fun.”

Sara might have been amused had it been anyone else other than Leonard and Mick they were talking about. “Look, I’m looking for Mick, and if I find out you hurt him in any way, you’ll wish I killed you quickly.”

The woman stopped posturing and settled back on her heels. “Not Len?” she asked, tipping her head.

“I know what happened to Leonard,” Sara confirmed.

The woman looked her up and down and sighed. “You from the Waverider?”

Sara nodded, realization as to who this could be who knew so much about Leonard and Mick dawning in her mind. “Are you Lisa?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Sara Lance.”

Lisa turned around. “Good, maybe you can get Mick to stop trying to drink himself to death.” She began walking off and turned to find Sara still standing there. “Well, follow me. He is who you’re here to see, right?”

Sara nodded and followed.

Lisa turned a corner and there was one of the trashiest dive bars Sara had yet seen, and she seen some pretty trashy ones. Two of the neon lights in Sinners & Saints burned out and a third was flashing every third second. “Mick’s upstairs.” Lisa nodded and took out her keys – Sara didn’t even know where she had pulled them from – and wiggled them around in the door. She must have sensed Sara staring because she turned around and made a show of pushing the thing she had used to open the door – not a key, this was Leonard’s sister – back into her bracelet with a wry smirk on her face. She walked in and held the door for Sara, who followed.

They climbed a flight of stairs and Lisa again jimmied the door. The reek of alcohol hit Sara in the face. Lisa seemed unfazed by it. “Mick,” she called, sounding for all the world just like her brother in that instant. “Mick, wake up. Sara Lance is here to see you.”

A groan sounded from a leather couch. 

“Come on, Mick, baby.” She ducked out of view and then Mick’s head appeared, supported by Lisa’s shoulder under his arm. “Up you go.”

“I don’t want to,” Mick’s protest was a heartfelt whine that made her insides wince. “Ms. Snart, I don’t want to remember. We shoulda never gone with him on that mission. There were plenty a missions in Central we coulda taken if Lenny’d wanted to be a hero. He shouldn’ta died out there.”

Lisa rubbed his cheek and made him focus on her. “Mick, baby, I just need you awake for two minutes so Sara Lance can say what she’s gotta say then you can go back to sleep.”

Sara stepped up. “Actually, it wasn’t important.”

Lisa crossed her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. “You grabbed a bus ride to Central and it wasn’t that important?”

Sara winced. “My sister died while we were away, and Rip Hunter just took off and left us here on our own to pick up the pieces.”

Lisa sighed. “Let’s go to the bar and I’ll buy you a drink and we can talk.” She turned back to Mick, who was still blinking at her. “Mick, hun, go back to sleep.” Mick nodded, and she carefully laid him back out on the couch. She picked up an empty bottle and tried to hide it behind her as she walked to a bin under a counter top and slid it in. Sara saw her swipe two others off the counter and another out of the sink and slip them into the trash can as well. Lisa then slid back into the personality she had had initially – very smooth, very deadly, very beautiful – and walked over to Sara, who was impressed by acting ability necessary to do that that quickly. “Alright, we can go.”

Sara nodded and Lisa led her to the bar. Lisa nodded at a couple of guys who took a look at who was nodding and cleared their seats for them, opting instead for one of the side tables. Lisa slid into one of the seat and indicated Sara should take the other. “What’ll it be, Canary?” 

Sara slid into the seat next to Lisa. “I’ll have a beer.”

Lisa nodded at the bartender and said, “Two beers.”

The bartender handed them over. 

“So what’ll we drink to?” Lisa asked.

“Those of us who are still alive,” Sara said.

Lisa nodded and took a swig of beer.

“Beer tastes better than it did in 1871.”

Lisa laughed and seemed surprised by it. Sara figured it was probably the first time she’d laughed since the news. “That’s probably the first compliment it’s received.” She took another sip. “So, Sara, what do you do, or did you do before you went off adventuring through time for five months?”

“I’m an assassin.” 

Lisa looked interested. “That’s something you don’t hear every day.” 

“What have you been doing?”

“Buying and selling art and jewelry on the black market.”

Sara nodded. “Impressive.”

“I got my truck license so I could drive the art across state lines. See how many laws I could break.”

“How many are you up to?”

“I lost count.” Lisa smiled and ducked her head. It was strange to see that little dip of the head that had clearly come from the same place as Leonard’s had. It cut across five months of getting to know someone and made her want to protect Lisa.

“I lost count of how many people I’ve killed.”

“I haven’t. Dead bodies are always bad news for thieves. The cops come sniffing where they might have otherwise ignored it. You only kill when you have to, you get away with the prize.”

“That sounds like Leonard’s rule,” Sara observed.

Lisa laughed. “Rule number one: don’t kill unless you have to. Rule number two: always stay away from drugs. Drugs lead to the mob and to unnecessary headache and murder. Rule three: keep it about the prize and fewer people get hurt. Those were his rules. When he went with you, he didn’t keep it about the prize – I get the feeling from Mick that he wasn’t allowed to – and now he’s dead.” She put the bottle to her mouth and took another gulp of it. “Mick’s not the only one broken up by his death.” 

Sara nodded. “I am too.”

Lisa sighed. “I’m still trying to work out his gun. I was trying to shoot it when you found me. I can. I know the mechanics of it. But it doesn’t feel right. It feels like it’s waiting for him.”

She leaned her elbow on the bar and her eyes into her hand. 

Sara put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, we’ll get Rip back here and punch him until he returns your brother and my sister to us. Okay?”

Lisa leaned back against her hand and reached up to put her hand over Sara’s. “You’re cute. But that won’t return them to us. Mick seemed pretty certain.”

“Maybe, but we can sure try.”

Lisa smiled fully for the first time since Sara had run into her. “We’ll need a plan.”

“I deck him; you threaten him with your gun.”

“That sounds nice, but we need a better plan. And a backup plan just in case everything goes to shit. Which judging by what I’ve been able to get out of Mick about the Waverider’s captain seem like a certainty.”

Sara laughed. “He’s not that bad.”

“He was responsible for my brother, who planned our way out of a mob war smelling like roses and with a score of millions. Without getting caught and with all the mobsters being sentenced to twenty years in prison. And the police thanked us for that one. Tell me again why my brother didn’t have a plan to get out of this one? Because it sounds like the captain vetoed it and that my brother actually listened to him. Which given that he had a plan on how to take me and Mick down, I’m actually wondering about.” Lisa grimaced and shook her head.

“Why did he have a plan to take you and Mick down?”

Lisa shrugged. “If he ever needed to. It’s why he got the Flash to own him a favor. Just in case.”

Sara nodded. “Which is why you feel we need a plan and a backup just in case.”

“Exactly.”

They came up with a plan and a backup. Now all they needed was a way to hail the Waverider. “Ray is working on something,” Sara said.

“Is he the one Mick keeps referring to as Haircut?”

Sara laughed. “Yes, that would be him.” 

“Don’t worry. Mick was complimentary about him, in his own way.”

They both laughed. “I do have his number if we want to give him a call now.”

Lisa shrugged. “Let’s wait till morning. We already have our plan, and I can think of some other things I want to do tonight.” She met Sara’s eyes.

Sara blinked. If she didn’t know better, she would say she was being flirted with. “Oh?” she asked for clarification. 

“Well, it’s nearly one in the morning. We wouldn’t want to wake him,” Lisa met her eyes again and smirked.

Sara decided to just ask. “Are you flirting with me?” 

“If you want it to be flirting,” she said. “You’re the first person who’s made me smile in weeks.”

Which was how they ended up upstairs in Lisa’s bed with a bottle of prosecco between them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa and Sara are Planning to Get Their Siblings Back Team Captains and call in a couple favors.

The following day they called Ray and told him to get his ass over to Central City because they had plans on how to kill Savage and get Lenny and Laurel back. Ray listened on the phone, nodded and hung up after promising to be there soon.

Next they dealt with Mick, which involved orange juice and Advil. “Mick, baby, Sara Lance and I made a plan to get him back alive. Now go shower.”

Mick turned to Sara with an expression of how did you get here on his face and was shoved in the bathroom with a towel. When he came out, he looked a lot less hungover. 

“I see you’ve met each other,” he observed. They had a deck of cards, which Sara was studying with curiosity as Lisa was pointing to various cards she had laid out in front of her. Mick leaned over to study what exactly Lisa was explaining. “Miss Snart, Canary. Canary, Miss Snart.”

“Yes, we met last night.” Sara looked amused. Lisa didn’t looked much better.

Mick frowned. “Huh, I don’t remember last night.”

Lisa and Sara shook their heads.

Mick frowned again and looked at the table. “What are we planning?” He scooted onto a bar stool that looked like it was the same as the ones at the bar downstairs, the third one at the table.

Lisa turned to him. “We’re gonna get Lenny and Laurel back, or your Captain Hunter is dead meat.”

“We kill Savage for him. He takes us back to get our siblings and your friend,” Sara added.

“How do we call his time ship?”

“Ray is on his way over. He’s working on something designed to do just that,” Sara answered.

“Also, we’ve got a plan and a backup plan, and I won’t take any shit from that captain. If he doesn’t do exactly what we tell him, there will be a mutany or he’ll be made a gold statute. Either way, Sara explained your knowledge of the time stream and more importantly how to fly a time ship. So you up for it?”

“That a girl, Lisa.”

Lisa smiled. “Good. Now, you’ve got a roll too. Here it is.”

Mick listened to them explained all the moving pieces until there was a commotion downstairs and what sounded like someone shouting, “Fucking superheroes!”

Sara groaned. “That would be Ray.”

Lisa nodded to the windows. Sara got up and opened the window and called down, “Ray! Up here.”

The bouncer took one look at the woman leaning out the window and set Ray down. “See. I told you they wanted me to come up.”

Lisa opened the door in time for the man to all but flee the bouncer, who met her eyes. She nodded at the bouncer, who shrugged and went his way. 

The man brightened when he saw her. “Hi, I’m Ray Palmer.”

She stared. “Cute. You’re a puppy in human form.” She turned to go back into the apartment.

“I take offense at that. And you still haven’t introduced yourself.”

Sara answered for her. “That’s Lisa, Leonard’s sister.”

Ray looked sheepish. “Oh.” He saw Mick then and said, “Hi, Mick. Hi, Sara.”

“Hi, Haircut,” Mick greeted.

“Hi, Ray,” Sara said and crossed the apartment back to the table. “So you said you had come up with a prototype device to flag the Waverider.”

“It’s still just a prototype. It probably doesn’t work yet.”

Lisa sighed. “Would having another mechanical engineer help you get it together any faster?” 

Mick looked up. “You know how to put together a device like that?”

“No, but Cisco probably does, and it’s been a while since we kidnapped him.”

Ray looked aghast. “This sure went to kidnapping fast.”

Mick chuckled. “Welcome to the Rogues’ hangout, Haircut. You play by our rules here.”

“Which are what exactly?”

“No unnecessary murder. No drugs. And keep it about the prize. My definition of prize is a little different from my brother’s. We’re going after the Waverider. Then we’re going kill Savage. Then we’re going to bring Lenny and Laurel back alive, safe and sound. There might be some threatening to maim, but if you follow our lead, it will only be threats. So, do you think that Cisco – who invented Lenny’s cold gun, Mick’s heat gun, and my gold gun – would be helpful?”

Ray looked at Sara helplessly, who shrugged. “I don’t authorize kidnapping though.”

Lisa pulled out her phone. “Hi babe.” There was a pause. “I need to ask a favor.” There was another pause where she made an expression halfway between an amused smile and a grimace. “You’ll like it and it won’t involve any threats to your life or anything illegal. You know where Sinners & Saints is? Great. See you there. Bring your tools.”

Cisco showed up a half hour later. Sara noted the bouncer let him right up. “Hey.” He gave the cutest wave Sara had ever seen. “Oh hey, Raymond. Heatwave, good to see you’re sober. Please don’t kill me. Hi, I don’t think we’ve met before. Hi, Lisa, what do you need?”

“Ray is trying to design a device that will bring a time ship back. We thought he could use your help.”

“Time ship? What like the Delorean and Marty McFly?” Cisco asked. Lisa smirked at him. Mick nodded. 

Ray said, “You’ve seen that too?”

"We've all seen that," Lisa said.

Cisco nodded, too. “I tried to see if I could invent one of those in college, but that would involve first knowing if time was an open time loop or a closed time loop and also having a car. And what? Everyone’s staring at me.”

“Inventor, that’s where we went,” Mick informed him.

Cisco looked around to find out if Mick was joking and came to the conclusion that he was not. He opened his mouth, shook his head and turned to Lisa. “This is way outside my paygrade. But… can I help? This is so cool.”

Lisa stepped forward and gave him a shove toward Ray. “You two had better have a working method to call this ship by the end of tomorrow.”

Cisco nodded. Lisa took Mick by one arm and Sara by the other and went to the couch to consult with them. She turned to Mick as soon as they were seated. “Okay. I want to know everything you learned as Kronos about the time stream.”

Mick stared at her, evaluating. Sara also stared. 

Lisa explained, “I assume they told you something if they gave you your own time ship. What did they tell you?”

Mick nodded and leaned back on the couch, taking a deep breath and tensing his body. Lisa nodded, sitting up to face him, but Sara was worried. Something was going on, and he was starting to hold himself more like he had while he was Kronos.

Sara reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “What are you doing?” she asked.

Mick turned to her – yeah, definitely Kronos. She took a deep breath. He studied her and explained, “I only have access to what they told me while I’m in this mindset.”

“But you’re still you?” Sara asked.

Mick tipped his head and considered. “For all practical purpose, yes.”

“Good. Tell us everything that could be useful to us,” Lisa said.

“Elsewhere in the time stream, we have to be careful about meeting ourselves. Not so in the Vanishing Point. I have run into myself there with no bad effects, other than the Time Masters being creeped out. If we want to go get Snart, we could do it from the Vanishing Point and leave as many of his memories intact as we can.”

Sara turned to stare at him. “He did blow up the Oculus. How are we going to get him out of that?”

“If we go in right as he’s blowing it up. After we have already left.”

Sara and Lisa stared. 

Sara was the first one to speak. “That would be cutting it close.”

Mick nodded. “We can repair the Waverider on the way there. She is designed to fly that fast.”

“There might be a way we can do this,” Lisa commented, then smiled at Mick and Sara – a smug expression like the cat that got the cream – before she turned to Cisco and Ray. “Cisco, is there a way we can get the Flash involved in this?”

Cisco’s jaw dropped. “Somehow, I don’t think he’ll like the idea. He’s been dealing with a lot.”

Mick turned to her with a delighted expression. “You know, I heard the Time Masters complaining about Speedsters. They don’t like them, say they mess up their plans.”

Lisa smirked. “Let’s get the Flash then. Cisco, I need you to keep an eye on him until we need him.”

Cisco considered. “You want Barry to grab Cold?” he asked.

Lisa gave a nod, then turned to Sara. “Your sister’s going to be much easier.”

Ray said, “How will that not mess with the timeline?”

“Fuck the timeline,” Sara shot back.

“We just have to convince the people who were there that what they saw was what they saw, and then bring Laurel forward, and say she wasn’t actually dead,” Cisco said. 

“How will we do that?” Sara said.

“Barry,” Cisco and Lisa said. 

Lisa handed Cisco his phone. “Call him.”

Cisco met her eyes, looking like he was not sure. 

“I’m sure Lenny would call in that favor, and I will too.”

Cisco pressed a button on his phone and spoke into his earpiece, “Hey, Barry. Yeah, you’ll never believe where I am. No, I’m not in danger. But listen, could you come to Sinners & Saints? Like now?”

\--

“You were where?” Barry said after everyone had explained.

“We just explained, Red.” 

“Yeah, it was a rhetorical question. So you’re planning to go back out there and rescue Laurel and Snart and you want me involved?”

“Uh huh,” Ray said.

“And you’re planning what again?” 

“We’re gonna save my partner and Canary’s sister from dying.”

“You know screwing with the timeline’s a bad idea?” Barry pointed out.

Cisco made a sound. Everyone turned to look at him. He was staring at Barry with an incredulous expression on his face and shaking his head. “Barry. No, okay? Just no. Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth? After you screwed with the timeline in ways I can’t even begin to explain? I’m helping them. Besides, it isn’t that much messing with the timeline. They have a way figured out so it won’t be.” There was an unspoken "unlike you" at the end of that speech that they all heard and raised eyebrows at. Cisco gestured that he would explain later. Barry, to his credit, did look sheepish in response.

“Besides,” Ray stepped up next to Cisco, shaking a device in his hand, “We’ve got the prototype working, or it should at any rate. We should test it.”


	3. Chapter 3

All of them went out to the roof where they had originally met Captain Hunter and met Stein and Jax there. “Stein, Jax, meet Lisa Snart. Lisa, this is Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson.”

“Hello, Ms. Snart,” Stein looked at Mick and Sara. 

“We’re going to rescue Leonard,” Sara said.

“And your sister,” Lisa added.

“What happened to your sister?” Jax asked.

“She died.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry, Sara.”

“We’re going to save her and make sure she isn’t dead.”

Stein opened his mouth and looked at the group around Sara and Lisa. “I take it you are all agreed then?”

“Hey, I’m up for any attempt to save Snart,” Jax said.

“Can we save Mr. Snart? And your sister?” Stein asked.

“That’s what we have Barry for,” Cisco said.

“You’ve agreed to this?” Stein asked Barry.

Cisco nodded before Barry could say anything. Barry shrugged. Mick said, “Red agrees.”

“The Flash agreed because he wants to save people,” Lisa said. “Isn’t that right, Flash?”

“I think I can manage to get Snart out of the explosion after it starts. And I can do something -.”

Cisco interrupted, “Barry can time travel with his speed.” 

Everyone stared at Barry. Barry stared at Cisco. Cisco shrugged. “I figured since we were talking about time travel, they might as well know.”

“That might be helpful for saving Laurel,” Sara said.

“But everyone thinks she’s dead. Wouldn’t it be changing the timeline a lot to save her?” Ray said.

“Technically, if we make a hologram and have that die…” Cisco trailed off as he realized everyone was staring at him. “What? We had to do it to save Caitlin.”

“Do we even need the Waverider for this?” Jax asked.

Cisco nodded. “Yes. We need a stable place to be running the hologram from. I don’t know how to send a digital signal back in time; do any of you?”

“With the Waverider and Gideon’s technology, we can take her out of the hospital right before surgery. Then Gideon will fix her,” Ray said, nodding to Sara.

“And she can be returned to now,” Sara said.

“So when do we test out our devices and get Mr. Snart and the older Ms. Lance back?” Stein asked.

“Now,” Lisa said. “Oh and we might have to threaten him a bit, but if everything goes according to plan, that’s all it will be.”

“Why do I feel like I’m in a heist movie gone wrong?” Jax protested. 

 

They used their devices. The Waverider appeared. Ray and Cisco gave each other high fives. When Rip got off the ship, he looked around in confusion. “Who are they?” he nodded at Cisco and Barry.

Lisa walked up from behind him and aimed her gun at his head. “The question you should be asking is how willing you are to die tonight.” 

“What is this? Are you holding me ransom?” Rip asked but stuck his hands into the air.

Lisa pursed her lips, studying him, and said, “Mick, check him.”

“Sure thing, Miss Snart.” Mick went over and shoved him. Lisa grabbed hold of the collar of his jacket.

“Miss Snart? Well, you’ve grown up a lot since I saw you last, and how do you walk in those heels?”

“It’s easier than doing jumps on figure skates. And when did you see me last?”

“A bounty hunter named the Pilgrim took people who meant the most to us through time to hold for ransom. She took you for Leonard,” Sara explained.

“Good to know I still meant the world to him. Now, we’re going to help you end Savage and rescue Kendra and Carter. In exchange, you are going to sit down and shut up while we rescue Leonard Snart and Laurel Lance. And before you say anything about messing with the timeline, we’ve already thought of that, and figured out a way to leave the timeline.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Snart. Your brother sacrificed his life to destroy the Oculus-.”

Lisa revved up her gun. “Where should I aim this? I think your hand would do. Do you want me to turn your hand to gold? Because let me tell you, it isn’t nearly as fun to have a gold hand as Star Wars would have you think.”

There was a chuckling sound. Sara wasn’t sure who made it. It may have been her. 

Barry stepped up to the situation between Lisa and Rip. “Umm. I can actually do something about that Oculus thing.”

Rip saw Barry up close. Rip squinted at Barry. Rip’s lip curled a little. He might have recoiled but for the tight grasp that Lisa had on him. “You’re a speedster,” he accused. 

Barry looked around him for who might have told. “Yes.”

Rip winced. “And how many times have you messed up the timeline?”

Cisco took a step forward. “Only twice. Well, technical the first only counted as intent to mess with the timeline. Actually, no wait, we did erase Eobard-Wells. But since that was more Eddie, only once. But we fixed it. And we’ve managed to get him to promise not to do it again.” Cisco looked at Lisa and held up his hands. “Hey, Glider, just trying to help. Clearly the guy who runs a ship that goes through time cares about not messing with the timeline too much and being able to fix it.” He turned back to Rip. “But this isn’t actually messing up the timeline too much. Technically, you saw the Vanishing Point blow up. You didn’t know for sure that Cold necessarily died in it, or that somebody, say, us from now, didn’t pull him out of there at the last moment.”

Rip stared.

Cisco shook his head. “I thought way too much about this when watching the Terminator movies.” 

“I’m all for trying it,” Barry said. “I think I can outrun it, and I know I can phase through things while carrying people.”

Mick walked up to them with an expression that meant he had had enough of standing around waiting for Rip to make up his mind. “I’ve heard enough, have you?” he addressed Lisa. “What do you say we just knock the Captain out and drive the ship ourselves?” Lisa caught Rip’s arm behind his back just in case he tried to run off. Mick continued, “I could pilot the Waverider. Piloted my own time ship after you all as Kronos, and I still know how to do it. Canary can drive, as she already demonstrated. We go take out Savage, save Hawkgirl and friend, rescue Snart, rescue Canary’s sister.”

“I thought we got over our little ‘let’s knock me out’ thing,” Rip protested, trying to get free as Lisa had anticipated. She pulled his arms up behind him a little more to demonstrate that he was not going anywhere. “Mr. Palmer, Dr. Stein, Mr. Jackson, a little help here would be nice!” he called out.  
“Let me handle this.” Sara told the others and strode over to study Rip. 

“Sara, I-.”

She smacked him across the face. “Get me my sister back.” 

“I am sorry, Sara.”

She turned to Mick. “Mick, torch him.”

Mick nodded and pulled out his heat gun.

“Wait! Wait! Do you have a plan for how it will not mess with the timeline?”

Lisa released his arms from behind him and put the safety back on her gun. “Good. We knew you’d agree. Haircut, Firestorm, thanks for not interfering. Cisco, hun,” she smiled at him, “Flash, thanks for not going hero on the situation.”

“Were you actually going to shoot him?” Barry asked.

Lisa considered. “I might have made the tips of his fingers gold, but nothing you can hold against a girl trying to get her brother back.”

“Cisco, I don’t know how I feel about this,” Barry said.

“This is just bad all around,” Rip said from next to Barry.

“No, it isn’t, guys. Not if we stick to the plan, or plans B through G, which her plan B sound a lot better than yours. But if we all stick to the plan, we all get want we want,” Sara informed them.

“What do I get?” Barry asked.

“How about paying off that favor so you don't owe him one?” Cisco said.

Rip started forward and looked back at them. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to follow Miss Snart and Mr. Rory aboard the ship before they take off without us.” 

They followed the others and boarded the Waverider.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Allen,” greeted a voice when Barry got on.

Barry and Cisco both leapt a foot in the air. 

“I know I listened to Heatwave explain that there was a Gideon aboard the Waverider too, but it’ll always make me think of Dr. Wells.”

“Me too.”

“Well, get used to Gideon. We’re gonna need her help,” Sara informed them. “Oh, and you might want to strap in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Handwavey at Flashpoint. In this, the Flash team stopped that.


	4. Chapter 4

“I think I’m gonna be sick!” Cisco’s voice rang out after their jump. 

Barry groaned in agreement, closing his eyes. 

“Yes, well, time ships and speedsters don’t tend to work well together,” Rip commented to Barry. 

“So you’ve said, Captain Hunter,” Barry replied to him. “But I’m here to save Snart and Black Canary, so I’m here.”

“Also, that also doesn’t answer for me, Captain Time Jedi,” Cisco commented.

“Yes, well, you’re here because Snart’s sister kidnapped you and hijacked the Waverider, for which I am sorry.”

“Actually, there was no kidnapping involved,” Cisco replied. “That time.”

“And you’re hardly one to be talking about kidnapping, Captain Hunter,” Stein interrupted. 

“May I remind you that neither are you,” Rip quipped back.

“If you referring to the roofies?” Stein asked.

“Who did you roofie?” Barry gaped and looked between the two of them.

Jax made a hand signal to indicate that Barry should not ask about that. 

“I needed Jefferson to come along with me, and it was future Jefferson’s suggestion in the first place,” Stein explained.

Barry frowned. Cisco laughed. “Closed time loop? Jax from now went back in time?”

Stein nodded. 

Jax smiled. “Got it in one.”

“I’m sorry. Weren’t you worried you were going to have issues from giving Rohypnol to the other half of your bond?” Barry asked.

Cisco shook his head. “See, Caitlin did experiments to see who was affected by what, particularly when Professor Stein and Ronnie were Firestorm, and well, we wanted to make sure that Stein couldn’t feel everything Ronnie was doing.”

“Yes, that would be awkward, to say the least,” Stein added. 

Mick laughed. “You mean they wanted to have sex and you didn’t want to feel it.”

“Yes, Mr. Rory. That is precisely what I meant.”

Mick turned to Cisco and Barry. “Inventor, Red, time travel just sucks like that. I’ve always found it easiest to sleep through it.”

Lisa strode over from her seat, giving her head a quick shake. “Alright. Let’s get to the mission at hand. Cisco, you, Scarlet, Professor, Jackson, Haircut, discover something that will rescue Canary and my brother. Mick, I need you to download everything that will help with trying to find the hawk people. Sara, I need you in there as well. You,” she gestured at Rip, “You’re in group B as well, but I need you to wait out here while we use, that office will do.” Rip opened his mouth to protest, closed it and gave an aggravated shrug at the sky. “Gideon, can you divide attention?”

“Yes, Miss Snart.”

“Good, I need you on both teams.” 

Now Rip protested. “You do realize this is my ship?”

Lisa turned to him. “Yes, and you do realize my brother left me in charge of his affairs should he ever go missing on a mission he didn’t plan. As he wanted to complete this mission, and, as under your command, it wasn’t completed and you got him killed, I’m exercising command of those our family cares about.”

“Umm, I didn’t agree to be under your command. And you don’t care about me,” Barry protested.

Lisa glanced at him. “No, but you want to complete the mission and save lives. And together, we will make use of all of your abilities to do that. Unless you want Lenny and Laurel to stay dead.” 

Stein nodded. “I agree to save Mr. Snart and the elder Ms. Lance.”

Jax nodded as well. “Let’s save Snart and Laurel’s lives.”

Group A found its way to the med bay and set up trying to determine a way to rescue Laurel and Len. 

The second group looked at Lisa. “I will need to meet Mick and Sara first. You,” she waved at Rip, “As you would have done anyway, see if you can find something – anything really – that might tell where in time Savage is. Don’t think I don’t want him dead too. Mick, Sara, follow me.” She headed into Rip’s office. 

“Why do you and your brother both choose my office to make your lair?" Rip complained.

“It’s a nice office. You’ve got taste. Not much else, but taste.”

Sara gave a soft laugh. “I think that might be the first non-insult she ever gave you,” she informed Rip.

“Wonderful, my ship has been taken over by Snart’s little sister hell-bent on saving-.

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Say Snart and the elder Ms. Lance, and I will show you another person hell-bent on saving their sibling.”

Rip sighed. “May you have luck with her in this mutiny.”

“Don’t worry, Captain Time Jedi,” Mick said. 

“Did you just adopt that nickname from Mr. Ramon?” Rip gaped at Mick.

Mick grinned. “She’s gotten Snart out of more jams – mostly when he wasn’t in charge of planning – with more security than most mob families can even imagine.” 

"Wonderful. I'll just go sit out here then." He stalked away.

Lisa watched Rip walk away and turned to Mick. “Alright, Mick. I need to ask Kronos a few questions.”

“Figured as much.”

“Why am I here?” Sara asked.

“Security. Just in case.” She gave Mick a small smile.

He lowered his shoulders, sighed, and nodded. “Good idea.”

“Now, are you ready to go into that mindset?” Lisa asked. Sara gazed over at Lisa to study her face and saw tenderness there. She began to wonder if the Pilgrim might not have needed to kidnap anyone of Mick's because that person was already kidnapped.

Mick shrugged. “You know I threatened to kill you while I was Kronos? To Snart?” 

Lisa raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you mean it?”

Mick closed his eyes. “Kronos meant to kill everything Lenny held dear.”

She nodded. “That is why Sara is here, and I have my gun. You try anything, you’ll glitter. Now, are you ready?”

Sara watched the little muscle movements that made the difference between Mick, who was generally relaxed until something got him riled up, and Kronos, who sat with military precision ready to take on anyone with less than a moment’s notice. By the time he asked, “What do you need to know?” even his face was void of expression.

“Mick?” Sara asked, just to be sure.

“I’m still me, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he answered, giving her a smile, though it was not a warm smile.

“What do you know about time travel? Is it possible to get back Lenny and Laurel?” Lisa asked. Sara turned to stare at her. Lisa met her eyes with an unspoken “we need to hear.” Sara nodded and turned back to Mick.

“Anything’s possible at the Vanishing Point. It is outside the timeline. No need to worry about screwing up time. For Laurel, you were brought back to life-.”

Sara interrupted. “Nyssa destroyed the Lazarus Pit.”

Mick gave a nod. “So it isn’t possible to bring her back that way, but its existence means there might be other ways. It could be explained without a paradox.”

Lisa smirked. “We can invent a medical thing and slip it into the records. Or run it like that Juliet job.”

“Do I want to know?” Sara asked.

“It involved me taking a drug that slowed my heartrate after getting married under false papers. It convinced young, rich and romantic to donate a lot of money in my name to a charity of my choosing.” 

“Snart didn’t like it much-.”

Lisa interrupted, “To say the least.”

“But it worked.”

“Would it work well enough to fool all of Star City?” Sara asked.

Lisa met her eyes. “I had no pulse when I took it.”

Sara stared at both of them in alarm. “Where did you get this drug?”

“Trading favors with black market sellers. Snart was furious that we’d brought drugs into our lives.”

Sara nodded. “His second rule.”

“He took Lisa and left town for a while. Told me to stay away if I knew what was good for me.”

Lisa nodded as well. “He left Mick alive, which is more than he’d do for anyone else, but he said he never wanted to see Mick again.”

“Then the next thing I know. He’s back in town pulling jobs again,” Mick added and began to relax out of being Kronos. Lisa saw. “Mick, we still need some more information from your Kronos side.”

The muscles that had been loosen tightened back up to military trained readiness. “What else do you need to know?”

Lisa leaned forward and met his eyes. “What do you know about the Oculus?”

Mick straightened, his eyes going opaque for a while, studying. He licked his lips. “They’re terrified of it, the Time Masters. A few wanted to destroy it a couple years back, which is why that mechanism was put in place. After that, none of them in their right minds would have done what Lenny did, self-serving bastards. Technically, after a certain point, the person standing there is no longer needed, but that point occurs only seconds before it blows. That's our way in. The other bounty hunters weren’t sure, but it might have some cool effects – or nasty effects, bounty hunter speak being what it is – with them becoming part of it, or taking it into them. No one was quite sure, but Snart’s going to have one hell of a hangover. Bounty hunters like to discuss gruesome rumors of what might happen then.”

“Should we go further back and take him and find a different way to kill the Oculus?” Lisa asked.

Sara closed her eyes. It was a possibility, but it would leave the Oculus alive and the Time Masters still helping Savage. “No, Leonard did what he did. Let’s not have him have gone through it in vain and us still have to destroy it.”

Lisa looked at Mick and at Sara, both of whom had grim expressions on their faces. “So we’ll ask the Flash. He owes Lenny one anyway.” Mick nodded. “Now, onto a subject Kronos may be more interested in. Tracking Savage through time. The Oculus couldn’t have been the only way to track them.”

Mick gave a grin. “Time ships leave a signature, particularly when you’re as much of an arrogant bastard as Savage. Unfortunately, he has a head start. Even with that, I could find out what his ship’s signal is in a day, track him to when he is in another.”

“Do you have all the equipment you need?”

“I need my Kronos suit.”

“Where is it?”

“If Hunter left it where I did, it’s in my room.”

“Good, see if it is. I’m going to go talk to our captain about it.” 

\--

Cisco walked into Rip’s office later that day. "Hi Lisa."

"Cisco." She smiled at him. Sara looked up to see him smiling back at her like he couldn’t quite believe she was speaking to him. Lisa did a little thing with her shoulder that looked like it was actually flirting, in which case, she wondered what he knew of their one night stand. Cisco beamed. Or it could just be making him smile, which to be honest, she found adorable too. "What do you have?"

"Well, Raymond and I have built the hologram technology with a few modifications, namely we now have a robot version of Black Canary, so that you can actually touch her, which should work to get Black Canary out of the timeline, " Cisco said. "The only thing is, we will need to put it on you, Canary, and then have you act like she did when she was in the hospital."

Sara blanched but nodded. "But she’ll be alright?”

Cisco nodded. 

“I’ll do it.”

Cisco looked relieved. "Okay, we should only need you to do it for four hours tops, probably more like one hour. And then Barry will do his thing and bring her back here, and Gideon will heal her. Did you know Gideon rebuilt your brother's hand after he froze it off-?" He interrupted himself with look of horror and a cry of, "Please don't kill anyone!" aimed at Lisa.

Lisa's expression was murderous. She turned to Sara. “Froze off his hand?”

Sara opened her mouth. “He froze it when Kronos – Mick – kidnapped him and handcuffed him to the wall.”

"Thank you. I need to go have a talk with our captain." She left the room to go find him.

Sara met Cisco's eyes. Cisco was making a face like he really wanted to go after her and run damage control. "He deserves it," Sara explained.

Cisco tipped his head back and forth and gave a small shrug. "I still don't want her to kill him."

Sara nodded, considered what she would be willing to do for her sister and considered what she knew about Lisa before getting up to follow Lisa. “I’ll go keep an eye on her.”

Cisco leaned back and looked around the room at the mostly junk and historical memorabilia that was in the room: a gold telescope (though why anyone would need a telescope in a ship with no windows that travel in a green swirling tube and didn't have stars was anyone's guess), a few odds and ends on the desk, and a helmet that looked like it was from WWII.

_He was shot back in time to France and he was running from someone and Kendra was putting a note in the helmet._

Then, he was back on the Waverider. He picked up the helmet and turned it over. A note was tucked into it. "Guys! Guys! I think I know where they are!"

Ray, Stein, Jax and Barry all ran over, followed shortly by Mick. "I know where they are," he repeated, holding out the note. 

"How did you find that?" Ray asked, taking the note.

"I vibed that she was putting the note in the helmet," Cisco answered.

"English, Inventor," Mick said. Ray nodded agreement.

"I can sometimes see things. I was hit by the particle accelerator blast."

Mick looked at Stein and Jax then at Barry then back at Cisco. Cisco nodded. "How's that working out for you?"

"Well, he did just tell us where to find Kendra and Carter," Ray said.

"Then there's not a minute to lose. Where are the captain, Ms. Lance and Ms. Snart?" Stein asked.

"Oh, Lisa is definitely yelling at him, and Sara is making sure she doesn't kill him," Cisco answered.

"What'd he do to Lisa?" Mick asked, starting to get up and reach for his heat gun.

Cisco looked at Mick and the others and winced. "Did... Snart freeze his hand off at one point?"

Mick looked at his feet, his face going ashen. Jax looked away from Mick. Stein pursed his lips and gaze at Mick. Ray looked at the other then answered, "There was an incident where Len was handcuffed to the wall and couldn't get out and he had to shoot his hand to get out of it, and... uh, go save Mick."

Mick rolled his eyes. "I handcuffed him to the wall when I was Kronos and went to go kill the rest of the team. His cold gun was close enough that he could get at it and he shot it at his hand and came after me."

Barry opened his mouth and closed it and opened it again to ask, "Why did you do it?"

Jax explained, "The Time Masters brainwashed him into being one of their bounty hunters.”

Ray added, “And he broke it, twice."

Mick looked up. “Haircut,” he warned.

“What? I’m not allowed to comment on how that makes you a hero in my book?” Ray said.

“And mine,” Stein agreed.

Mick turned from one to the other and then to Cisco and Barry. “You see what I’ve got to put up with?” He gestured around him.

“Last I checked, you were still a supervillain in Central City,” Barry said. “Even with all you files deleted, there are a number of CCPD who fear you and the amount of destruction you did in Central.”

“And don’t you forget it.” Mick sat back down and glaring at the rest of the team.

Lisa’s voice sounded from down the hallway. “And you’re a fucking coward who shouldn’t have command of anyone, you little piece of shit!”

Cisco raised his eyebrows and gave the smallest smile, then looked around at the others. The corners of Mick’s mouth turned upward. Jax was not much better. Barry just looked dismayed. Ray and Stein were gazing over their shoulders in consternation. Rip came walking in with Lisa yelling at him. He had what would clearly turn into a bruise given a few hours over one of his eyes. Sara came walking after them, a concerned expression on her face but a twinkle in her eye that looked like she was taking a certain delight in the proceedings.

“Which is more than can be said about you,” Rip responded.

Lisa turned on him with an eyebrow raised.

“Captain, may I recommend accepting defeat at this point,” Mick called out. 

Sara’s lips turned up of the edges. 

Ray clambored over the seat to stand in front Rip and Lisa. “If I may interrupt, Cisco seems to have found out where Savage has taken Kendra and Carter.”

Lisa and Rip’s attention snapped to Ray. Rip nodded and put distance between him and Lisa, who was still glaring at him with a gaze that said she was contemplating whether he should die fast or slow. “That’s excellent. When and where are they?”

Lisa shrugged and stalked to one of the seats on the bridge, sliding into it. Sara followed, sitting down next to her and gazing out at the group. 

“They are in 1944 France. Here’s the letter she apparently put into that helmet,” Cisco handed the letter to Rip and walked over to go sit on Lisa’s other side. “What’d he say?” he asked.

“Only that he had no idea that Kronos would kidnap Lenny, even with them being friends.” She rolled her eyes. 

“If by friends, you mean criminal partners for life,” Cisco added.

“As I tried to impress on him.” 

“Except none of us knew that Kronos was Mick,” Sara said.

“That’s was why I asked him how Mick had been captured by the Time Masters,” Lisa replied. “Apparently he had Lenny ‘take care of him’ because apparently Mick had decided to join the time pirates to be able to come home with Lenny.” She saw Sara wince, which she took as confirmation that those events were what happened. “Because that makes a lot of sense.”

Cisco winced. “Wait. He had Cold take care of Heatwave and that wasn’t supposed to go absolutely awfully? Like the best you could have hoped for would be them to leave together and highjack a time ship on their own.” 

“When you put it that way,” Sara said softly. 

Cisco glanced at Sara’s expression. “None of you thought that would go badly?”

“We thought he’d actually killed him,” Sara admitted.

Lisa stared at Sara, frowned and glanced out at the group, then curled her hands around each other and sighed. “Alright. What exactly was the comment that was made to Mick that might have spurred him on?” she asked, her tone suddenly dripping with an undertone of murder again. 

Sara looked puzzled. “Comment? I’m sorry, Lisa. I don’t know what comment you’re talking about. Leonard and Mick were disagreeing because Leonard apparently had to knock Mick out to keep him from being left in a nightmare possible future.” 

Lisa shrugged. “That’s their issues. Go on.” 

Cisco mouthed, “Knocking him out?”

“But did Leonard make a comment that would have gotten-?”

Lisa nodded at Rip. Sara’s expression began to sink. “Fuck,” she said under her breath. Lisa fell silent and they stared out at the rest of the group.

Rip had finished reading over the letter and had handed it to Barry, who was reading it over as well. He handed it to Ray and asked, “So what do we do now?”

“Now. We strap in and travel to 1944,” Rip said.

They all took their spots – Sara got up to be the helmsperson after a quick, “I’ll find out” in regards to the comment, and Mick took her seat – and the Waverider jumped back in time to 1944, with Lisa reaching out to give Mick’s hand a squeeze.


	5. Chapter 5

“First thing I’m going to do when this is over is create a way that that’s less disorienting.” Cisco was the first one to speak when they came out of the time jump.

“Please do, Ramon. You have all of Raymond and my expertise as well.” Martin was pinching the bridge of his nose.

Lisa leaned over to one side, looking ill and annoyed at it.

Sara stood, gave her head a quick shake, and walked over. “Turns out driving works the same way as it did in cars – you don’t feel half as sick when you drive as when you’re a passenger.” She looked at her teammates’ faces. “Still I entirely support it if you want to invent a way that we will not feel like this every time we time jump.” Her eyes stopped on Mick. “Did he just sleep through the entire thing again?” Sara reached over and tapped Mick awake. 

He stretched and smiled up at her. “Did we catch him again yet?”

Lisa got to her feet, shaking her head. “No, Mick, we haven’t yet.”

Mick leaned back, into a stance Sara would have sworn meant sad. He grabbed at something under the collar of his shirt and Sara could see the necklace chain and a glimpse of what looked like Leonard’s ring. 

She glanced away again. “I’ve put the ship in stealth mode. If we’re going to find Kendra, Carter and Savage, we should start now. Rip, can you talk to Gideon and find out a little more where they are?”

“I can, and I have been trying to do that, Ms. Lance.” He looked annoyed in their general direction. Sara thought he deserved it.

“In the meantime, whoever needs to should try to sleep,” Lisa said. “How many beds are there?”

“There aren’t enough, but if everyone takes turns-.”

Lisa interrupted Rip before he could get any further. “Sara, would you mind if you and I share a bunk?” 

Sara nodded and gave a small smile. “That would be fine.”

“Mick, did the two of you do your usual?” 

Mick grunted and gave his head a shake in response.

Lisa turned to stare at him. “Really? Does that mean you haven’t told anyone yet, you suspicious jerks?”

“Told any of us what?” Jax asked.

Mick gave Jax a look and just answered his question with the statement, “My bedroom is open.” 

“Where have you-?” Sara asked Mick. 

“I’ll keep an eye on Snart’s room. It isn’t like I have many personal effects after you all thought he killed me.” That got guilty blushing from the rest of the ship.

“They’ve been splitting a warehouse for twenty years, the codependent assholes,” Lisa whispered to Sara. Then to the rest of the ship she said, “Which means Scarlet can stay in there. Cisco?”

“I’m going to be working on a way to make sure Barry can get back here after saving your brother,” Cisco answered. 

“That’s a good plan,” Barry agreed.

“Heatwave, I’m going to need you and your heat gun in the room of the med bay, if that’s not too much to ask.”

“Will it help Snart?” Mick asked.

Cisco nodded.

“I’m up for anything that’ll save that idiot.”

“Great, so let’s go take a quick refresher and then take out Savage,” Sara advised. 

 

After they got to Sara’s room, she asked Lisa, “Are you and Cisco?”

Lisa turned to her with a surveying expression. “He and I have flirted.”

“Am I interrupting anything?”

“We aren’t dating or anything. He might have taken me to coffee once or twice. But I wouldn’t say dating under any stretch of the imagination. I mean my family doesn’t exactly do dating, if you know what I mean, but we haven’t bought ourselves a little warehouse and moved in together either.” She laughed and shook her head. “Can you imagine Central City’s reaction to Mick and Lenny actually dating instead of just being them together?”

Sara sat down on her bed to process this. “They’re together? As in together together?”

Lisa gave a sigh of exasperation and put her hand to her head. “And that revelation is why they are idiots. What do you know about their relationship?”

“Leonard confessed that they met when he was fourteen in juvie.”

“They did. And then when both of them got out, they went on a job and bought a warehouse to stash all their stuff in. I’m convinced they got it, so they wouldn’t have to decide who belongs to what. I mean how do you divide a diamond? And they still date other people. But if one of them disapproves, the other will dump the person. Or will get mocked brutally.”

Sara began to slot in to her memories all the comments Leonard had made calling Mick his partner in this new light and Mick’s calling Leonard his criminal partner. They sure did call each other partners a lot. “I had thought it was just a professional arrangement.”

“Listen even if they didn’t have an apartment in common and even if they weren’t regular sharing a bunk on this ship apparently in secret, nonetheless, they’ve still been close friends for thirty years, and both of them practically raised me from when I was nine together. There was actually a time in my teens when I found it easiest to introduce Mick as my brother-in-law. It got a lot of cooing out of people, and a lot of spluttering out of Mick and Lenny. ” She sighed. “But I didn’t come here to talk about their relationship or their issues.” Lisa sat on the edge of the bed. “Since you are concerned about Cisco, I figured I’d ask what your views are on open relationships or potentially threesomes?”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Are you inviting me into a threesome?"

Lisa shrugged. “If you want.”

Sara considered. “I think I need to get to know Cisco first.”

“Well, could I invite him in to play card after he’s done with Mick?” Lisa suggested.

Sara narrowed her eyes. “What is with you and your brother and playing cards?” 

Lisa smirked. “It’s a way of sizing people up and creating instant camaraderie, competitiveness. He may have also been flirting, particularly if Mick approved.”

Sara nodded. "I'm aware he was flirting. Do you mind that he was flirting with me?"

Lisa smirked and pulled out a deck. “Want to play until we receive news from the idiot captain or do you want to play… something else?” She indicated what she meant with a smirk.

Sara nodded then smirked as well. “Go fish. Strip version.”

Lisa’s eyes danced. “Let’s do it. But let’s make it a little more interesting. You can either take off a piece of clothing, or you can tell a position you like. And maybe we can try them out later.”

“I’m up for that. Here’s to getting Savage and then trying out some of the positions you name. I deal.” She picked up the card.

\-- 

An alarm buzzed into the pile of clothing an hour later. “Ah. That’s the alarm I put on Rip’s office.” Lisa pried out her jacket and shirt and turned off the alarm. “Shall we, before I win?” 

Sara leaned back, observing the clothing. “I still think I was winning.”

Lisa pulled back on her shirt and jacket. “You may have taken off fewer articles of clothing, but I know all your likes and dislikes in bed.”

Sara disentangled her own clothing. “To be used tonight?”

“To be used tonight.”

When they walked out to the bridge, Rip was waiting. “This was in my pocket.” He put down a device in front of Lisa. Sara assumed it was the alarm.   
Lisa yawned at him to show that his annoyance was nothing impressive. “It’s a proximity alarm, the fastest way of letting us know you needed to speak with us. So is there an update?” she asked.

Rip looked like he wanted to protest, but thought better of it and gave an exasperated sigh. “There is no sign of Kendra and Carter, but I have located Savage.”

“Great. Where?” 

“He is on this road here,” a map appeared over the table in the bridge, and he pointed out a road, “and he appears to be accompanied by a number of Nazis.”

Lisa blinked and smiled. “And we’re going to take out him and the Nazis accompanying him?” 

“Yes.”

“Let’s go wake the others. They are going to love this.” 

\--

“We get to kill Nazis?” Jax asked. "Like in a spy movie?"

Rip nodded. “Yes. They are on the road with Savage.” 

“We get to kill Nazis?” Stein repeated. 

“Yes, that’s what I just said.”

“Where do we sign up?” 

“Why am I not surprised that he’s working with Nazis?” Ray said.

Lisa nodded. “There are going to be three teams. Professor, you and Jax will be on the taking-down-Nazis team. Haircut, you too. Scarlet, Mick and Rip, you three and me are going to find where Savage put his time ship and rescue Kendra and Carter. Cisco and Sara, back us up aboard the Waverider. If we need a quick get-away, you two know how to drive this. If anybody gets captured, we are staging an immediate rescue. Any questions?”

Rip nodded along with her plan. She pointed at him. “You, you’re to work with Scarlet, and ID where they are. Red, I take it you already know what to do.”

Cisco handed Rip a small earpiece. “I have a com for everyone so we can all communicate.” He handed them out. Barry nodded, taking it. Sara did next, Ray did after that. Mick approached next, and Cisco held up his hands. “I understand if you don’t want to wear it.” 

Mick thumped Cisco on the back. “You’re a great inventor, Cisco. You’d make a great addition to our team, if you ever decide not to run with Team Flash anymore.”

“Thanks, Heatwave. That means a lot coming from the team that almost murdered my brother and me while holding us ransom so I would fix your guns.” 

Mick shrugged. “It’s a pretty gun.”

Cisco stared at him and deposited the device in Mick’s hand. “It should be able to handle high temperatures too.” He handed one to Jax and another to Stein. 

The second they touched down, Barry zoomed out of the Waverider and Rip went back to asking Gideon where the other ship would be. “Talk to me, Captain Hunter,” he asked. Rip nodded and began to give him coordinates where it was most likely to be.

The others filed off to go take down Savage. 

\--

“Guys, I found a clearing,” Barry’s voice announced over the com.

“Gideon has detected a temporal signature consistent with a timeship in your area,” Rip agreed.

“If Kendra and Carter are alive, that is where they're going to be,” Lisa announced. “Let’s go, Mick and Time Jedi.” Together, Mick, Rip and Lisa filed off the ship in the direction of the time ship. They got to it without incident, though they could hear the rest of the battle happening on the road.   
“Mick, stand here.” She positioned him outside the ship. “You, follow my lead,” she whispered into the com at Rip, and pushed herself back by the door after hitting the open button. It opened. There was no one inside. She waved Rip in. Barry caught up to them. Lisa waved him in. Kendra and Carter were strapped into the seats on the ship. They were able to wake Kendra who opened her eyes, didn’t recognize Lisa, but calmed when she recognized Rip. 

“We’re here to rescue you,” he said, opening the straps. 

“I’m alright. Get him.” She indicated Carter. Barry blurred over to Carter and came back with him over his shoulder.

“HI Barry. What are you doing here?” Kendra asked.

“Long story. Let’s get out of here,” Lisa said.

Barry blurred Carter back to the Waverider. 

“I can fly,” Kendra said, without prompting.

“Then let’s go.”

\--

Back in the fray, a Nazi tried to shoot Firestorm, who took the gun, and it dissolved. 

“What the hell was that?” Jax shouted.

“You transmuted the molecular properties of the rifle,” Stein observed in awe. 

“What does that even mean?” Jax asked, taking down the Nazi they were dealing with. 

“Okay, let's get out of here.”

They saw Kendra start to fly. Firestorm started to join her. A shot hit Kendra.

“Kendra’s down,” Firestorm said.

“I see her!” Barry announced. A second later, she was aboard the Waverider. “I got her,” he told the rest of the group. They regrouped aboard the ship.

\--

They revived the two of them on the Waverider. “Hey, we got you. You’re safe,” Sara said to Kendra, who leaned forward, taking a few deep breaths.

“So this is a spaceship?” Carter observed. Kendra winced.

“It's a timeship, but yes, it does also travel through space.”

“You... you've seen it before, Mr. Hall.” 

“That used to be my name. Carter Hall.” 

“There really is rather a lot to fill you in on, and we really do not have the time,” Rip informed him.

Lisa came over to Kendra. “We do, actually. But first, we need to know what Savage was doing in 1944.”

“He said something about, umm... Thanagarian technology.”

“Thanagarian?” Lisa turned to Rip, who leaned forward with an expression halfway between shock and pain on his face.

“The Thanagarians were race of extraterrestrials that the Time Masters mentioned were coming to earth,” he explained. “Shown to me by the Time Masters when they showed me the Oculus. Their technology is already here?”

“He said he had the technology in three meteors to start time over,” Kendra told everyone.

“The meteor in 1958?” Ray said.

She nodded. “He said that with our blood, he could erase the timeline.”

Cisco winced. “Why do the crazy ones always try to destroy the timeline? Why?”

“You’ve seen this before?” Stein asked.

“Eobard,” Cisco responded.

“Zoom,” Barry added.

Cisco waved an accusatory finger at Barry. “Zoom didn’t try to destroy the timeline. That was all you, Barry.”

“Do I even want to know?” Jax asked.

“No.” Cisco and Barry both shook their heads.

“But how would he use three meteors to destroy the timeline?” Barry asked.

“Kendra, what do these things do when activated?” Sara asked.

Kendra frowned with an expression of growing horror on her face. “If activated, I think they destroy everything.”

Ray made a small noise of surprise and looked at her. “By everything, you mean…?”

“I think they could destroy the entire world,” Kendra said.

Lisa sat down again. “So he plans to destroy them.”

“It seems like one would do enough damage. Why does he need all three?”

Rip stood, pressed his hands together and then looked around at everyone. “Theoretically, if he intends to detonate each of these meteors in a different time period, it could create a temporal paradox.” 

“Uh. So three explosions and adios goes the timeline?” Mick asked.

“That’s just what I was thinking, Mr. Rory, Captain Hunter,” Stein agreed.

“Everything after the point of the first chronothermic reaction would cease to exist,” Rip said.

“Well, we’d better stop him from doing that,” Jax said.

“How can he be in three times at once?” Barry said. “He isn’t another speedster, is he?”

“God, that’s a terrifying idea,” Rip responded. 

“I hate to break it to you, but he is immortal and has lived through all those time periods,” Kendra pointed out. They considered.

“And now he has a time ship so he can let himself know when the time is right,” Sara added.

“So all we need to do is figure out when he is going to do this and then we can stop him?” Ray said.

“Well, he got hold of one meteorite in 1958. Evidently he got hold of a second meteorite in 1944, which would be useless to him in a year where Earth and Thanagar weren't in alignment. Now, if my math is correct, the next two years that Earth and Thanagar are in sync are 1975 and 2021.”  
“So he’s going to bury the one from 1944 in a warehouse till then and then go get it?” Mick concluded.

“Yes, Mr. Rory. That’s precisely what he means to do,” Rip said.

“So how do we stop him? Do we launch these things back into space or kill Savage, now that we have Kendra and Carter, or both?” Lisa asked.

“How will we kill him in three times?” Ray asked.

“Barry, could you-?” Cisco started.

“Let’s not mess with the timeline and speedsters any more than we have to,” Rip interrupted.

Sara shrugged. “We could knock him out and then have the time ship bring Kendra through to kill each of them.”

Kendra pursed her lips. “He’s vulnerable around the meteorites. I think anyone can kill him around them.”

They turned to look at her. “Savage is about to unleash the radiation from all three of them. It should be make him mortal.”

“So we can each take a hit,” Mick said.

“Now we just have to find him.” Lisa glanced at Rip.

“Gideon can navigate the Waverider, if we want to split up and all take a different time period.” 

Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Why would we leave no one aboard the ship? We can split into groups of three and still leave Cisco aboard to look out for Carter and Gideon. Haircut, Mick and I will go to 1958. Sara, Professor and Jackson, 1975. And Captain, you, Scarlet and Kendra can go to 2021.”

\--

They handled him, and they handled the meteorites. 

In 1958, Lisa used her gold gun on his arm. He looked at it in fascination and growing worry. “This is gold,” he said in surprise. 

Mick shot him with his heat gun set to burn. Savage screamed. “This is for my partner,” he said and kept the heat gun on him. Gradually, Mick turned up the temperature on the gun. The screaming stopped. Savage’s body drifted away in ash until there was nothing left. 

Ray aimed his atom suit’s cannon at the meteorite. When it didn’t dissolve immediately, all three of them turned their guns on it at once. This time, it dissolved. 

In 1975, Sara and Firestorm both kicked Savage until he fell over, in pain. Firestorm aimed his fire at Savage, and Sara, for good measure, stabbed into the fire. When nothing was left of Savage, Firestorm touched the meteorite. 

“It's up to you now, Jefferson,” Stein said to Jax.

“Gray, listen. If we're going to do this, we got to do it together. It's going to take the two of us, all right?” Jax told Stein. 

After a few seconds, it turned to water. “We did it!”

In 2021, Barry, Rip and Kendra went at him together. Barry ran around him until he was lightheaded. Rip decked him. Kendra hit him with her mace. He lay dead. “Can you make sure he’s dead?” Kendra said. Rip shot him through the heart.

“Now how do we get rid of that?” Barry indicated the meteor, which was starting to glow. Something shot at it, and it vanished, leaving a small smoking crater with a lot of small rocks around it. 

“I am the master!” came Cisco’s voice over the com and they all saw the Waverider flash into existence. “Glider had me look up a potential way to stop this thing. I already had one from when we were testing the pipeline cells. I just needed Gideon to help me load it. It now enclosed in a thing aboard the Waverider – man, do you need a better name for your ship. But basically, it can’t detonate. But I’d really like it if Barry were to launch it into the sun, or nuke it in orbit, or something like that.”

“What would happen if we throw it in the Oculus?” Ray asked.

Mick thought about it and blinked. A slow grin spread across his face. “Should work. Should create an even bigger explosion.”

Rip agreed. “If we put it in exactly when the Oculus is exploding. Can Mr. Allen do that?”

Barry nodded. “I can. I’ve had to grab bullets and people before.”

Cisco added, “Barry can run as fast as he needs to be able to throw the meteorite in there and rescue Cold.”

“Let’s do this then, if everyone is agreed to it,” Lisa said.

“How long will that hold up?” Sara nodded at the high-tech netting they had the meteorite wrapped in.

“Long enough,” said Cisco. “We could fly around with it for a year, and it wouldn’t go off.”

“Then could we get my sister first?” She glanced at Lisa. “She would be easier to rescue. And I feel that if we wait too long, the timeline might swallow her.”

Rip nodded. “There is a greater likelihood of that happening in the timeline itself, then at the Vanishing Point, and the more people who know about it and won’t believe whatever technology gimmick you have planned.”

“It’s a robot built on the same tech as we already used for Barry once or twice when he lost his speed,” Cisco informed him. “All of Central knows about it. We can say we needed her for something top secret at STAR Labs or better at Palmer Tech, where Raymond over there still has to reveal he’s alive after six months.”

Rip blinked and considered. “That does increase the chances of people believing it.” 

“So could I ask that we go save her before we go grab Leonard?” Sara gazed at Lisa again. Lisa gazed back, studying her. Finally, Lisa sighed and looked at Cisco. 

Cisco nodded. “I’ve got the technology up and running for her rescue, whereas Snart’s is a little trickier. Barry needs to know how fast he’ll have to go at the whacha-ma-call-it.”

“Vanishing Point,” Mick informed him.

“That,” Cisco said. “Which will just take a few simulations that I can run easily on Gideon’s mainframe. And I can do that while… while the Atom is playing with my technology.”

Ray brightened. “I get to play with STAR Labs technology?”

“Yeah, and I’ll even agree to you releasing some of it with me. About time we released something that isn't about turning the city into a metahuman wasteland again.”

Barry, Kendra, Jax and Stein laughed. Ray looked at them and nodded.

“We’ll go rescue Laurel first. Then we’ll deal with the Vanishing Point and saving Lenny,” Lisa confirmed. "Any objections?" There were none.

“Well, since everyone’s confirmed that you all want to do this, I suppose I am aboard too,” Rip agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

They had the ship cloaked in the right time, over the Starling hospital that night. Lisa had asked for a moment alone with Sara in their room aboard the Waverider. There were hushed tones coming from the room when Mick walked by. 

Cisco was gathering together the last of the equipment in the med lab. Ray decided to go in with him to talk technology with him. Stein followed as well, after a brief buzz into his earpiece by Cisco and Ray. Together with Gideon, they set up the med lab to grab Laurel out of the hospital and get her to Gideon and Stein’s care as fast as possible. 

Finally, Lisa and Sara came out, and got Mick’s attention. “You're needed in Sara’s room,” Mick told Cisco, who found Sara’s room and knocked.  
Lisa opened it and Cisco entered. Sara’s eyes were red, as though she had been crying. There was a nearby tissue box and several already tucked behind the bed. “Hey, you okay?” he asked her.

She smiled at him, nodding. “I will be. I want to see your technology.”

Cisco nodded and went over to her, sitting next to her on the bed. “Most of it’s in med bay, but I have the main pieces here.” He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a disc. “Basically, if you put this on, it creates a hologram. Now, for Barry we had it working so it would show him. But that wouldn’t work here. So if we put it on you, may I?” She nodded. “And flip this switch here.” Laurel materialized sitting on the bed beside Sara, in exactly the same posture.

Sara gave a small sound of surprise and moved away. On the bed, Laurel did the same thing, but in reverse. “Laurel?” she said to the thing.

“Just a hologram. And it’s only a hologram so touching it doesn’t really work. I mean you could, but you’d basically be touching air, right?” 

“And you have a way to make it not just a hologram?” Lisa prompted.

Cisco looked at her and nodded. “Yes. We made a robot on the ship’s replacator - as soon as we’re done saving your siblings, I’d love to see how the Waverider works – because basically, we have a robot that looks like Laurel Lance and then with the switch on there in position three, you will be able to move the robot.” He saw her staring and ducked his head. “If that isn’t really, really weird for you. I know it would be really weird for me. An it only has to hold up long enough for everyone to be convinced she's dead, so that when you got back in June 2016, they would send you out here. That way it won't create a time paradox.”

“I think we should go find out how it works,” Sara answered.

“Okay, let’s go try it.”

“Cisco, I wanted to tell you if it doesn’t work out and if I don’t get a chance to tell you later, thank you.”

Cisco smiled. The three of them went to med lab to find Stein working in one corner of the room and Ray working on another. Cisco pointed out the robot. Sara stared at it in wonder for about five minutes and finally reached out to poke at it, and when that did have any effect, waved her hand into front of it. “Did we get it right?” Cisco said to Lisa.

Lisa indicated that he should ask Sara. “So what do you think?”

“This is amazing. How did you get it this lifelike?” 

“Gideon,” Cisco answered.

Stein commented. “Cisco is brilliant. Don't let him give all the credit to Gideon.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope this works. I’ve been getting lectures from Gideon on all that could go wrong if it doesn’t. Otherwise, we could send…”

“We could just kidnap the nurse and get her not to tell anyone,” said Mick from the door.

“Let’s not kidnap anybody today?” Ray said.

Sara looked up. “No, I agree with Mick. We could always kidnap her.” She looked back at Ray. “Chances are Oliver’s going to deliver her to this particular nurse.”

“Ah. What you’re saying is she’s expecting strange things to happen to her?” Ray translated.

“You know what, I don’t want to know. If it involves Oliver, I don’t want to know.”

“Why?” Sara said.

“He shot holes through my suit into Barry on my first or second meeting with him!”

“Your friend shot holes into Red?” Mick asked.

Cisco nodded. Sara shrugged. “It sounds like something Oliver would do.”

“You have interesting friends.”

“Oliver Queen, you heard of him?” 

Mick made an expression like that had come out of left field. “The washed up billionaire playboy who went missing and then was news again when he was found?” 

Sara, Cisco and Ray all stared. “Okay, how do you know that?”

“Daytime television,” Mick answered. “Snart watched it a lot while planning jobs. We considered pulling a job on him once and then Snart came back with a weird look on his face.” 

They all took a moment to consider the Rogues pulling that job. Sara broke into a grin first. Then Cisco. Then Ray. By the end of it they were all laughing.

“Yeah. That would have been bad for you,” Sara concluded.

Stein had gotten the settings on the bed hooked up. “If there are no other points, I think that Mr. Ramon should show off his device to everyone’s satisfaction and get the elder Ms. Lance up here so Gideon and I can save her.”

Cisco tapped the disc, still attached to Sara’s chest. The robot stood. Sara stared. “Do something,” Lisa said.

Sara lifted her arms. The robot lifted her arms. Sara moved towards the robot. The robot moved towards her. “Impressive,” she said. “Impressive,” the robot said back. Sara tried not to wrinkle her nose too much at her voice coming out of a robot that looked like her sister.

“Okay, let’s do the thing,” she said.

Cisco nodded at Stein, and sat down in front of the computer he had set up. Stein gestured at the bed next to the robot’s. “If you will be so kind, Sara.” Sara sat on the bed, noted that the robot was doing the same and reclined. “How are we going to get it down there?”

“Barry, could use you right about now, buddy,” Cisco said into his earpiece. 

Barry whooshed in. Mick blinked at the sudden Barry. “Does he always do that?” he asked Cisco.

“Pretty much,” Cisco said.

“There’s a kitchen here. It’s pretty awesome.”

“Mmm hmm.” Cisco picked up a bowl of something. “Already found it, Bear. But I take it by that that you kept up your calorie intake. So you up for delivering Canary’s robot to the hospital and coming back here with Canary?” 

Barry nodded then considered something. “If Oliver’s there…”

“He will be, but then he left,” says Sara from the bed.

“Okay. I can manage. I’ll get your sister. Just say when.”

“Go now. That way you only have to make half the journey,” Lisa told him. Sara nodded. 

Barry looked around and then was no longer there. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” Ray said.

“They’re still in the room,” Barry’s voice came over the com a few seconds later.

“Then wait,” Sara instructed.

“Put me on,” Mick said. Cisco nodded. “If there’s an employees’ only entrance you’re gonna go in there and find a nurse’s outfits. It doesn’t matter whose; it’ll be back before anyone’ll miss it. Put it on. Make sure your hair is tied back. Then you’re gonna grab a clipboard, and pretend to take note in the room next to Canary’s. Nobody looks at janitors’ or nurses’ faces. Once they’re out of the room, then you’re going to grab her, and come back here. Then if you want to, you can drop off the nurse’s scrubs.”

Stein, Sara, Ray and Cisco are all staring at him as though he has grown an extra head. Lisa’s just smirking at him in admiration. 

“What? You don’t think I pulled that many jobs with Snart and didn’t pick up something?”

“What did you need to steal from a hospital?” Ray asked.

“Was that the Florida job?” Lisa asked.

Mick nodded. “Snart told you?”

Lisa shook her head. “Every time he started to, he started laughing.”

“We made friends with two little old ladies who were robbing their neighbors blind,” Mick said.

Ray and Stein made scandalized expression. Cisco chuckled. Lisa and Sara gave impressed nods.

“Okay, guys. They just left,” came over the com. 

Everyone’s attention snapped back to the job at hand. “Go get her,” Stein ordered.

“Okay, the robot is now on the bed. Hold up. Hold up. I can explain.”

“Barry?” Came another voice over the com. 

“Laurel? Laurel, is that you?” Sara said into her com.

“Barry, what is that? Is that Sara?” Laurel’s voice said in amazement.

Barry sped into the med lab wearing green scrubs, holding Laurel. 

“Did you just kidnap me?” she said, blinking around. “From a hospital?” 

Barry set her on the bed and blurred back out again.

Stein was over by her in a moment. “Ms. Lance, we’ve got no time to waste. You’re going to need to be operated on again. Not all of the arrow was removed.”

“Who are you?” she asked him.

“He’s my friend, Laurel,” Sara said. 

Laurel met her sister’s eyes and she smiled. “Sara. How did I know you had something to do with this?”

Sara took a deep breath and sat her sister down on the bed. “Listen, if we don’t operate soon, you’re going to go into cardiac arrest.”

Laurel looked around. “What? They got it out.”

“No, they didn’t. But we can. We’ve got better technology.” Stein reassured her. “We can get all of it out and get you healed up properly.”

“Sara?” Laurel asked.

“It’s okay, Laurel. I need you to go with Professor Stein.” She reached out and squeezed Laurel’s hand before sitting on her own bed.

“Thanks,” Laurel said.

Sara smiled at her. 

“Alright, young lady,” Stein said, wheeling her into the other corner of the med lab and pulling across a soundproof drape they had found. Ray ducked into the operating room as well. 

Cisco looked at Sara. “Your part isn’t done yet, Sara. You ready?”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Anytime, Cisco.”

“Now, you won’t be able to talk once this is live. Now touch the disc and move the lever on it two up.” She did.

“Okay, now you are live and in charge of the robot, and now you have to fake her death.”

“Sara already died once,” Mick said. Sara gave him a look. “It gives her unique insight on how to do it again.” Sara chuckled.

Her eyes fell across Lisa, who was watching from next to Mick. The expression and the posture both said worry – the arms crossed across the chest, the tight lips, even the gentle tapping of her fingers of the outside of her arm – Leonard’s worried habits. She smiled at her, and Lisa smiled back.  
“Great. I’m working with a member of the undead.” Cisco quipped back. “But as long as you don’t try to kill me, that’s a whole lot less strange then some of the stuff I’ve been dealing with lately.”

Sara looked back at him. 

“Hey, it isn’t,” he insisted.

“Let’s get this thing started,” Lisa said.

“Okay, I’m going to start to lower the pulse on the robot,” Cisco informed her. “It’s now there, on the monitor. When you hear the first beep, you should start faking your body ceasing up.” 

Sara nodded. The beep came. 

Between Cisco’s instructions, and the beeping of the EKG they had set up on the robot to register its “pulse” as it was remote controlled, Sara faked bleeding out internally and finally lay still when the beep became a whine. Lisa began to approach at one point. Cisco waved her off.

Sara lay there, knowing that that was what her sister had gone through, and found it easiest to meditate to keep from panicking or crying, slowing and concentrating on her breathing. Cisco, Lisa, Mick all looked on in horror. 

“Is she still alive?” Mick asked.

Lisa looked over at her and couldn’t see her breathing. “Cisco, turn that off. Get that thing off of her.”

“It shouldn’t have done anything to her. Her heart’s still beating.” Nonetheless, he ran over to her. “Sara, are you alright?” He ripped the device off her. “Talk to me, girl.” 

She opened her eyes, having quelled the worst of the panic, but she still had to take a few deep breaths to keep tears from falling. She sat up and ran her hand over her face.

“I feel like I just participated in killing you,” he said.

When Sara spoke, it sounded rushed and raw. “For all practical purposes, I just experienced my sister dying. I just went through what she went through the first time.” 

Lisa sat on the bed next to her. “Hey, but she didn’t die, okay? She’s right in there.” Lisa gestured at the curtain.

Sara was on her feet in a moment and walking for the other section of the room in another. “How’s she doing? How’s my sister?” She grabbed Ray to ask.

Ray stopped and looked down at the blood coated equipment he had and hid it behind his back. “Hi. Sara. Uh, Laurel’s been sewed up. Gideon and Stein are miracle workers. Gideon’s just looking her over for anything else and making sure she heals properly. But she should be fine. Did you know fast tissue growth and patching will be a technology in the future, so there won’t be any rejection?”

Sara gave a sigh of relief. “Can I see her?”

Stein came over. “Yes, Ms. Lance. She’s doing fine. Just a little woozy from some of the medicine we used.”

“Thank you.” That said, she brushed past him to see Laurel. 

She turned to her sister. “How are you feeling?”

“I think I’ll be fine as soon as the room stops moving,” Laurel answered. “This is one of the reasons I wanted to stop drinking.”

Sara met her eyes. “You haven’t started back up, have you?”

Laurel gave a small laugh. “No, I’m fine. And I feel much better.”

Sara smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. I’m so glad.”

Laurel looked around at the med lab. “So is this where you’ve been?”

“The rest of the ship, yes. I’ll show it to you once you’re recovered. What do you say to spending a few months in Central City?”

"Why?" 

"Because I want to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Stein came over. “We’ll give you time to catch up. Gideon will notify me if anything should happen.”

He ushered, Ray, Mick and Lisa out of the room. Lisa nodded at Cisco. Cisco nodded back. “One to go. Now where did Scarlet get off to?”


	7. Chapter 7

Lisa, Cisco and Ray sent Mick to go get Barry from the ship’s kitchen, with some mentions about Barry’s appetite. Still, nothing could have prepared Mick for the skinny man knee deep in pizza – there was already one box empty and he was halfway done a second – and cupcakes.

“Umm. Gideon said I was to eat whatever I wanted,” Barry said in response to Mick’s expression of awe and followed his eyes. “Would you like one? Are you into sugar? I have no idea.”

Mick took a cupcake, sniffed it, and smiled. “It’s good.”

“You can have them all if you like. Gideon on this ship seems to think I need more sugar.” Barry thought about it and shook his head.

Mick laughed and took another bite of sugary confection. “Gideon’s been trying to insist I don’t need any.” He took another bite. “This is a good cupcake. Not quite as good as a baked Alaska or crème brulée, but still tasty.”

Barry looked up at Mick, narrowed his eyes. “Was that a fire and cold reference?” 

“Yes. But I also like anything sugary that can be set on fire and eaten. Actually, anything that can be set on fire and eaten. But cupcakes are good.” He took another bite and got some frosting on his nose.

Barry stared up at him. “This is weird. The last time I saw you, I was putting you and Snart away, and you were raring to fight all of CCPD.”

“And then Lisa sprung us, if I remember correctly.”

“Well, yes. But now you’re a hero against the Time Masters and Savage. I knew you and Snart had it in you.”

“Just for that, I’m gonna light the county court on fire, you know, first thing as soon as I get back to Central.”

“Got it. No calling you a hero.”

“Might still do it. Just to let the CCPD know I’m back in town. It’ll be nice to get back.”

“You missed the entirety of Zoom terrorizing the city.”

“Zoom?”

“He was from an alternate world and was terrorizing his own world. And then I accidentally open a portal.”

“The entire city knew about that. Time Masters too. They weren’t too happy with you for that one.”

“No one in Central was. As for the Time Masters. I hear they captured you.”

“Yeah. And I got free. End of story. Black Canary’s healed. And Lisa needs you to make sure we can go get Snart back.” 

“Listen, if you’re worried-.”

“I’m not. But one thing I will torch you if you ever tell Snart’s sister, the Oculus, that’s the thing he blew up that you’re going to rescue him from, it’s likely to have some effect on him. They dunk their bounty hunters heads into it and use its power to wipe our minds. Snart had his hand in it as it was exploding. Even with you saving him, it’s still going to be partially exploded. We should get him hooked up to Gideon within an hour to make sure there aren’t any. Also if he loses another limb, I’m taking it off you. Gideon will regrow it, but it isn’t a nice process.”

Barry stared, taking in the information. “You got your memory wiped? And when did Snart lose a limb? What limb?”

Mick interrupted him. “You’re needed in med lab. The Professor, Lisa, Inventor Kid, and Haircut are all trying to figure out a way to save Snart. Oh, and this conversation never happened.” 

“Are you coming too? I mean he was your criminal partner.”

“Yes. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Oh, okay. Let’s bring the whole plate then.”

Mick came back into the med lab with Barry behind him, holding the plate of cupcakes. Jax had found his way to the room and was looking over Cisco’s shoulder. “Found him. He was halfway through his second box of pizza.”

“Gideon makes pizza?” Ray looked sad. Barry nodded. 

“He needs it for his metabolism,” Cisco commented. “Supposedly.”

“So how are we gonna save Snart?” Mick said, grabbing another cupcake before setting it on the table.

“Well, I need Barry to put these on and run a lap around the ship.” Cisco held out a few small electronics, which Barry took and began sticking to himself. “And, umm, I’m going to need to borrow your heat gun. Then I’ll give it back.”

“And this will help save Snart?”

Cisco nodded. Mick unclipped his gun and handed it over. “What’d you do to it? Hey, baby, what’d Heatwave do to you?” he cooed at the gun. Lisa chuckled into her hand, and shook her head when Mick looked at her.

“Why’s he need it anyway?” he asked Lisa.

Cisco answered. “I need to mimic the effects of the explosion. We need to have Barry run at a speed that normally makes him go back in time, which we don’t want. So I’m going to see if he can stay in this time, while still running fast enough.”

“Wait up. Can’t you run across open space if you get enough speed to launch yourself?” Jax said.

Cisco nodded, frowning. “How would that help?”

“We could more close enough to the Vanishing Point and Barry could go get him and then we’d still be moving, so we wouldn’t have to speed up.” The others were staring. “People do that in cars, and I’ve set it up so they could without damaging their cars.”

“Wouldn’t you need to breathe?” Lisa asked Barry, who glanced at Cisco.

“We did an experiment with Barry and water. If we did it here,” he spun the computer around to show them, “And didn’t slow down, we wouldn’t need to have Barry run so fast he’d go back in time.”

“We should ask Rip if it’s possible to do it in this time ship,” Jax said.

Mick studied where Cisco and Jax had put the bank. It was within where the bounty hunters flew and didn’t go half as wide. Heck, he had done something similar in his time ship. “It’s possible.”

“Will Barry be able to run it?” Ray asked.

“Mmm hmm,” Barry said, looking at the distance. “I’ll be gasping for air afterwards.”

“My helmet was designed to handle an explosion in the time stream,” Mick said.

“Gimme,” Cisco reached out and indicated with his fingers that Mick was to bring it to him.

“I can check if the Waverider can handle turning that fast,” Jax suggested.

“Good, go with Rip. See if you can get information from him on how good the Waverider is already at making those turns.”

“I’ll go get my Kronos helmet. Don’t destroy my gun in the meantime or I’ll destroy you.”

“I won’t destroy it, Heatwave.”

“I’ll go run a lap,” Barry said.

“I’m going to go see how Kendra’s doing,” Ray said. Cisco winced and nodded. Mick gave him a hard pat on the back.

“Okay. Let’s everyone meet back here in two hours,” Lisa said.

\--

Lisa ducked under the sound proof curtain. “Hi Laurel, Sara how are you?” 

“Laurel, meet Lisa.” Sara introduced.

“Hello.” Laurel nodded, “Were you aboard the Waverider saving the world from Vandal Savage too?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, I was in Central City. I’m the younger sister of someone who was aboard. We’re going to rescue him.”

“The way you saved me from dying?” Laurel glanced at Sara.

“Similarly, yes.” Lisa answered.

“She told me I would have died – did die – if you hadn’t travelled back in time and brought me aboard the time ship.”

Lisa nodded. “You would have, but she saved you.”

Laurel surveyed Sara with a smile.

Sara shrugged. “Because people already know about the Flash and his tech, if we just say he was involved and you were off doing something for him, everyone will accept it, and we can announce Ray is still alive. You should be able to get your job back, no problem. The only person we will need to worry about is Dad.”

Laurel winced. “I don’t know if he’ll be able to handle another of his daughter’s coming back to life.”

“Top secret spying stuff for the Flash?” Sara suggested.

Laurel laughed then winced again. Sara focused on her. “Where does it hurt?”

Laurel waved her off. “I’m doing much better. The painkiller is just wearing off, on my instructions, though the AI offered me more.”

“We’re still going to drop you off in Central City so that you can say you were helping the Flash, and you can have STAR Labs keep an eye on you for a few days, or weeks, you know,” Sara said.

Lisa nodded. “You can blame it on us if you want. My brother, his partner and I are criminals. We have kidnapped people before.”

Laurel closed her eyes. “Please don’t tell me that.”

Lisa shrugged. “We returned them unharmed.”

“Still,” Laurel said. “And we will discuss the plan to leave me in Central City for several weeks. I do have a job that needs to know I’m alive. And I have been Black Canary and I’m not defenseless.”

Sara and Laurel glanced at each other. This debate would be going on for a while. 

“I should go check in on how Mick is doing. I’m glad to see you’re doing better. If you need anything, you know how to ask. And if you come up with a different plan, feel free to let me know,” Lisa nodded at Laurel and Sara and closed the door behind her. 

Sara turned to her sister once the door had closed. “Yes, and Damien Darhk killed you, not tried to kill you, actually killed you. I got back in June, and you were dead. Daddy was crying. I had to enact your death, Laurel. I felt you die. Please let me be concerned for you.”

“Sara. If I agree to go to Central City with you for a week, then you can come back with me and we can find Damien Darhk and make sure he doesn’t threaten our city again.”

Sara considered then nodded. “We find Damien Darhk. Then we talk.” 

\--

Rip sighed at how his ship – his Waverider - had become testing ground for a speedster who was voluntarily using himself as target practice against the pyromaniac’s further powered-up heatgun while the younger Snart criminal sibling sat on the console in the middle of the bridge and all but applauded every time the speedster’s yelp indicated that the heatgun hit close to home. 

“Will you please watch what you do to my suit, Heatwave?” Mr. Ramon’s voice came over the coms. He didn’t mind Mr. Ramon: clever scientist, rather brilliant with technology, unfortunately too close to the Flash to take him off in the Waverider too long. 

Speaking of the Flash, that flash certainly looked a lot brighter than before. “Cisco! Cisco, I’m on fire,” Mr. Allen shouted. 

“Get your butt in here then,” Mr. Ramon returned.

Rip sighed. “Miss Snart, does this actually have a point?” he asked.

Mr. Rory came in after the Flash had disappeared into the inventor’s makeshift lab. “Yes, Time Captain. The purpose is to make sure Red can outrun the Oculus explosion after tossing in the meteor. It’s going to make one hell of an explosion. And short of setting off a nuke, I’m the one with the best gun to copy it.” 

Rip had to admit Mr. Rory did have a point. “Fine. Carry on. But could you tell me if you will be finished soon?”

“Sure thing, Time Captain.”

“Captain Time Jedi, we have enough data now,” Mr. Ramon informed him over the com.

Mr. Rory smiled. “Good. I want my partner back.”

\--

“I got it up to speed so it can do the maneuver, but we’re gonna need somebody who can drive it,” Jax reported to all of them.

“What about Captain Hunter?” Mick suggested. 

They all turned towards him. “When he was younger, he supposedly used to drift around the timestream all the time, or so the report among the bounty hunter went. Of course, that was before the Time Masters shoved that stick up his ass. So maybe not.”

Stein opened his mouth and shut it again. Jax turned to Sara and Lisa. Ray turned to Mick with an expression halfway between inquisitive and pained. Kendra was the one who asked, “You still have memories of when you were Kronos?”

Mick nodded. “I didn’t know how much I remembered. But Lisa and Sara found out for me.”

Lisa nodded. “He had to have had memories if he recognized faces.”

Sara added, “As he did with Druze. And with that other bounty hunter back in the Wild West.”

Mick nodded. “So I have memories. I’d prefer to drink than access them. So, we could also use Sara, whose skills at drifting a car are considerable.”

Sara pointed out, “Except I have no idea how wide the time stream there is. But Mick, what about you?”

“I usually set mine on autopilot.” 

“Would you know how wide the timestream near the Vanishing Point is?” Stein asked.

Mick nodded. 

“Good, then you, Sara, Rip and Jax, discuss amongst yourself exactly how wide the timestream is, what angle the Waverider can and should do the turn at and whether drifting a car is anything like drifting a timeship,” Lisa summed up.

\--

Rip frowned when Jax explained what they needed the Waverider to do. “It is possible to power the two engines independently and stopped one of them.” 

“That’ll work,” Jax said.

\--

“If we reverse half the engine, we can turn around without losing any speed and without doing a wide loop,” Jax reported. Sara and Mick nodded. Even Rip looked excited. 

“We’re gotten Barry up to a speed where he can phase through the wall, drop the meteorite, pick up your brother, and race back here without being exploded in the process,” Cisco reported. 

Ray nodded. “And we put enough of Kronos’ helmet into Barry’s suit that he should be able to breathe and give Snart air too.”

“Carter’s got his memories back,” Kendra said.

“The elder Miss Lance is resting, but reports feeling much better,” Stein said.

“Shall we do it then, team?” Rip asked.

“Here goes,” Mick agreed. Lisa nodded.

\--

They waited a little way out until they saw past Jax on the jump ship zoom by. Cisco hit the timer. 

“We have three more minutes until explosion,” Gideon informed them.

“Then we should do this in 60 seconds,” Rip said.

Sara hit the timer next to her. “Counting down now. Jax, you?”

“Counting down,” Jax confirmed.

“Red?” Lisa asked Barry.

“I’m game. Let’s go so I can get rid of this meteorite.”

They were silent, watching the timer. “Okay, time to move,” Sara said. 

“Okay, engines are on full blast.”

“Shifting into high gear.”

“Five, four, three, two. Okay, break the left side now.” Sara turned the ship hard to left. They fell a momentarily lurch as the ship spun. Barry blurred out of the ship and across the timestream. They had managed to turn in far less space than previous calculations. 

“Turn it back on. Now,” Sara called out. The ship righted itself.

Barry phased into existence on the Waverider, grasping someone to him. He nodded at Sara, who yelled “Gun it!” and she and Jax gunned the Waverider out of there as the explosion enveloped their tail.

“What the hell, Barry?!” was the first thing that Len said after Barry had put him down.

“What’s wrong with your hands?” Barry grasped Len’s hands and held them up for Len to see. They were glowing blue in a pattern that looked like Disney-animated frost from under his skin.

“We’re clear,” Sara shouted into the com.

“Yes,” Rip said.

Len stared down at his hands. “I think the Oculus’ impending doom did something.” He touched it and winced then his eyes snapped back to Barry. “How are you here?” He glanced around and his frown deepened. “And how is here the Waverider? And who the hell blew up the Oculus?”

“Oh, it just blew,” Barry said, “And you set it off.”

Lisa had walked up behind Len. “I pulled Red into a job: saving your jerk ass.”

Len’s expression changed into a small, delighted, if confused smile. “Hi, sis. Should of known you were involved.”

“Like I was gonna accept my big brother being dead in that way,” she said.

“And I can move faster than that explosion,” Barry insisted, “So Cisco and I were roped in.”

“Good to know, Flash.” Len stared at him. If Rip had bothered to swing by and pick him up on the way, but then he hadn’t thought the Time Masters were going to betray him like that.

“Also, we dropped one of the meteorites into it. It was really cool,” Barry added.

Len stared at Barry then looked at Lisa for clarification. “What meteorites?”

Barry and Lisa both tried to explain. Len’s eyes fell across Rip.

“That sounds… peachy. How did you get Rip there to accept?” Len said.

“It seemed like a good idea. And now the Oculus has blown up even without you being blown up as well. I must say I’m glad to see you,” Rip gave a grand speech. 

From Rip’s expression, even he knew it was not fooling anyone. Len looked at Lisa for her explanation. “Lisa?”

“I threatened him,” Lisa explained. “As did Sara.”

“Sara?” Len frowned, hand going up to touch his lips. “How is she?”

“Apparently, her sister had died while you were out there, and she wanted to rescue her as well.”

“And did you?”

Sara answered from the captain’s chair, “Hi Leonard. She’s is med bay now, carefully monitored by Gideon.” 

Len nodded. “Good to see you’re okay. Good to see your sister is too.” He touched his fingertips and winced then looked around. “How’s Mick? I had to knock him out to get him out of there. He wasn’t too thrilled the last time I did that.”

“Snart, you asshole,” Mick greeted from behind him. 

Len turned around to face him. “Hi, Mick.” Barry stepped back.

Mick lunged forward to embrace him. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, you idiot.”

Len made small noise of surprise, hands fluttering in surprise behind Mick’s back. Gradually, carefully, he placed them on Mick’s back and tucked his chin over Mick’s shoulder. “You left me very few choices, Mick. How I was supposed to get you out of there and not leave you for dead again? We all know how that turned out last time. I wasn’t about to leave you at the Vanishing Point when you’d already been brainwashed there twice.”

“So you went and sacrificed yourself like a goddamn hero, Snart?” Mick pulled him back to see his face but kept a hold of his waist. 

Len shrugged. “Not a hero. Besides, somebody had to do it. I sure as hell didn’t like the idea of being manipulated into my life choices. Since you wanted it to be you instead of Boy Scout, I wasn’t gonna let that happen.”

“You wouldn’t have done it for me?” Ray said.

Len narrowed his eyes, seeing Ray. “It would take me a few more moments of consideration. Probably still would have done it.” 

Lisa scoffed. “Of course you would have, Lenny, if you consider someone a member of your team. What was I supposed to do with that?”

Len ducked his chin down. “Thanks, sis. Sorry I couldn’t say goodbye before deciding.” He considered for a moment. “You went back to 2016, and then came back to get me? Doesn’t that create a time paradox?”

“We just waited until our old selves were out of way, then flew in and grabbed you. I figure that since the Oculus was being destroyed, we had greater leeway,” Rip informed him.

“It involved us already being in space when Barry grabbed you. So that we could both have you blow up the Oculus and rescue you,” Sara said from the captain’s chair. 

“You ran across space?” Len asked Barry.

Barry nodded. “Time actually.” He seemed pleased with himself.

“Yeah. Don’t get too cocky. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done that, Cold,” said Cisco’s voice from up the hall.

“Do I even want to know?” Len asked Barry.

“Cisco ran all the calculations, you know,” Lisa said, holding out her arm and pulling Cisco into a hug as he entered the bridge. Cisco put his head on her shoulder.

Len turned to Cisco and back to Lisa. “What’s been going that I should know about in the past six months? Cisco?”

“Nothing, Lenny. Some flirting. Cisco’s sweet,” Lisa informed him.

“Mick?” Len asked, turning to Mick.

Cisco looked like a deer in the headlights. 

“Lenny,” Lisa pouted at him.

“He’s a good kid,” Mick answered Len’s question.

Cisco gaped the tiniest bit. Len guessed it was a surprise for him as well. 

“Well, kid, you have Mick’s blessing and Lisa’s. Don’t abuse it, kid.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Cold,” Cisco answered.

Sara walked over. “We’re on autopilot.” She said at Rip’s expression. “Hi, Leonard.”

“How’s Laurel?” he asked.

“I managed to convince her to spend a week in Central City so I can see if the man who would have murdered her is still alive.”

“Makes sense,” Len said.

Sara nodded then glanced at Lisa. “You know your sister’s better at cards then you are.” 

Len turned towards Lisa and looked from her to Cisco to Sara and back. “So are the three of you…?” 

Sara crossed her arms across her chest and leaned over to kiss Lisa on the cheek. Lisa smirked back at her. Cisco beamed at the two of them and threw an arm around Lisa’s waist.

“I leave you alone for six months and there’s a poly relationship.” Len turned to share a look with Mick, who shrugged. “You know what: I’m not asking. As long as it makes you happy, Lisa.”

“It does.” 

Len nodded and glanced back at Mick, who had not yet let go of Len. Mick nodded. Len moved his hands down along Mick’s arms and gave him a small smile. 

He looked around at everyone. His eyes fell across Barry again. “Barry, I guess I owe you one.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to stop stealing stuff.”

“No, but I’ll help you out next time you need it. Though a caveat: next time don’t have someone familiar with the inside of a jail cell transport prisoners from solitary to a top secret offshore prison thing.”

Barry and Cisco both made expressions of discomfort.

“Good to have you back, Leonard,” Sara said.

Jax nodded at him as well, coming into the bridge. “Good, I had to tamper with the engines again to be able to save you.”

“Thanks, kid. I hope Rip was more forthcoming about what might blow up and give you super-accelerated aging?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that truly wasn’t supposed to happen,” Rip exclaimed.

Jax laughed. “Yeah, he was much more. Your sister sent him down with me.”

Mick reached out to trace the blue outline that was fading from Len’s hands, but had not quite faded yet.

Len sucked in a sharp breath. 

“Hurts?” Mick asked.

“No, but it feels kind of strange.”

“We should go get you look at, just in case,” Barry said, eying Mick.

Len narrowed his eyes at Barry. “I’ll be fine.”

“We do have the med lab,” Stein said.

“I’ll be fine. Although Rip, now that the jumpship is back, I’m taking it along with my sister and Mick, Sara, her sister and whoever else wants to return to 2016. I’ve had enough heroing for the time being.”

“I’m taking you all back to 2016 aboard the Waverider. I need to see how this turns out.”

“Well, wake me up when we’re there. I have things I need to discuss with Mick.” 

Mick nodded and hugged him again then pulled away and pressed something into his palm. Len’s eyes widened a little and he hugged Mick back, placing his hands carefully on Mick’s back. He had his ring back on, though Sara noted he had it on his ring finger this time.

Barry saw the ring and the two of them hugging and said, “Wait? Are you engaged?”

Len and Mick pulled away and stared at him. “What would you call what we are?”

“Partners. We’re called partners, Mick,” Len said.

“Right, you and me?”

“You and me.”

Ray said, “This is so romantic.”

“That’s it, Haircut.” Mick pointed at him. “I’m shaving you.”

“Cisco and I kept your names clear while you were gone. It’s been legal since last year, Lenny.”

Len glanced at Cisco. “Cisco, I’m freezing your toes. And not first degree frostbite either.”

Lisa pouted. “You can’t do that, Lenny. I’m taking Cisco and Sara ice skating with me as soon as we get back. Besides, everyone’s invited over for the July 4th.”

Len smiled at her. “I’m glad your skating again, Lisa. And you invited them already?”

“I’m inviting them now.”

“Mick, how do you feel about starting up the barbecue?” 

“Will do, Snart.”

“You cook?” Jax asked.

“Open flame. Fresh meat. No damage,” Mick informed him.

“Can I come too?” Barry said.

“Sure. Why not? Now take us back to 2016. We need to fence some of the things we stole to be able to afford this,” Len said.

“When did you have time to steal?” Rip exclaimed.

Lisa laughed. “I’m glad your back, Lenny.”


	8. Epilogue

4th of July, the roof of one of Len and Mick’s safehouses. 

They had dragged all of what Mick affectionately called his big girls out (when Sara and Cisco asked why, from the beach chair they were lying on each other’s laps on, Lisa told them it was a joke at her: for a number of years she had been unable to spell the difference between girl and grill and when the students were asked to write a how-I-spent-my-summer essay, had written that her older brother’s friend had gotten big girls instead of big grills, and the nickname had stuck). 

Anyone who thought Mick was kidding when he said he liked cooking had not only thought better of it but a few had actually come and apologized while grabbing another rib or crème brulee or char-broiled burger, pulled pork that was melt in your mouth tender, or seared tuna steak, or arepas, empanadas, and Caribbean fish wrapped in tin foil cooked in hot charcoal, flame-broiled fried rice, seared scallops, or any amount of fried or battered food: funnel cakes, smores, baked pineapple. The courses kept coming and even Barry was getting full by the time the sun was going down. 

It was hot enough that even Len had taken to going in short sleeves, a fitted thing that Mick had convinced him to wear on the grounds that he thought it made for pretty viewing. Mick himself stripped off his t-shirt early on, revealing a lot of tattoo work. Len’s shirt did as well, though his were more inked in different colors and patterns, as opposed to Mick’s, which were either writing or little flame tattoos. And if people noticed under Len’s tattoos that his skin was glowing a little, in a very similar color and light to the way the Oculus was, they didn’t comment, though Mick had to step on Ray’s foot at one point to get him not to ask.

Caitlin had been introduced to Sara and reintroduced to Lisa and Laurel and Ray, and was chatting with Ray, Stein, Clarissa, and Henry over some new device. Barry, Iris, Wally and Jax were hot in discussion over whether certain cars could outrun Barry. Rip, Laurel and Joe kept a close eye on Mick and Len, who were busy with the grills and with the conversations going on around them, but who would occasionally go over and slip a hand into one another’s, and whisper something in their code to the other that would make the other smile. 

Towards dark, when Lisa went to go help Len set up the mosquito torches, things that were a little too big and a little too bright to be considered torches but served the same purpose anyhow, Sara and Barry went over to Laurel and Joe. “I can’t seem to sort them out. They’re criminals,” Joe said. “I should arrest them on the spot.”

“But they’re kind of cute together?” Sara suggested. “And it would be a shame to arrest them at their 4th of July party after Barry got you invited on the ground that you wouldn’t arrest them?” 

Joe and Laurel nodded.

“Also, I checked if they have a criminal record currently on file. They don’t. Not even the arrest from last year,” Barry said. Joe sighed. Laurel shook her head. 

“We’ve decided to get everyone together to play BS. Want to play?” Sara asked.

Joe narrowed his eyes. “Is that like that game Egyptian Rat Screw that Bear kept nailing me at?” 

“No, it’s a game based on how well you can tell people are lying,” Laurel reply to him and got to her feet. “And I always beat your ass at it if I remember correctly.” She told Sara.

“Mmm. But that was before my training with the League of Assassins.” 

“You’re on.”

“It’s really fun,” Barry said.

“Alright, Bear. Let’s play.”

Half an hour with everyone except Lisa, Len and Mick later, Lisa came out to lounge between Cisco and Sara. Mick and Len came out with an empty cart with the words “Fireworks. Do not touch” on the side of it. “So, anyone up for some hot fireworks?” Mick asked. 

“Do I even want to know where you got that?” Barry asked.

“No, so we’re not telling,” Len said. “Not with Miss Assistant D.A. and the first honest cop in Central here tonight.” He nodded at Laurel and Joe. 

“This is empty. We got the actual fireworks all set up over there.” Mick nodded back towards the area he had had roped off the entire day. Everyone craned their necks to see. “Everyone should count down from thirty.”

They started counted and Mick stepped over the ropes and brandished his lighter. Light started along the floor and split of into several different lights. By the time they got to zero, the fireworks started. Len put his head against Mick’s shoulder. Sara smiled at her sister, who leaned her back against her sister’s knees, then at Lisa, who was looking out at the entire gathering with a happy smile on her face. Fireworks lit up the sky and they sat back to watch.


End file.
